Blu-ray Review: The Monkey King 3

The third installment of the blockbuster fantasy series sees the return of the Monkey King (Aaron Kwok) in his most action-packed adventure yet! While continuing their epic journey to the West, the Monkey King and his companions are taken captive by the Queen of an all-female land, who believes them to be part of an ancient prophecy heralding the fall of her kingdom. With a lot of sorcery and a little bit of charm, the travelers devise a plan to escape. But, when their trickery angers the mighty River God, they realize they might just bring about the foretold destruction – unless they can find a way to quell her wrath.

What We Thought:

I haven’t seen the first two films in the franchise, but even if I had, I don’t think my experience with The Monkey King 3 would be any different. I honestly have no idea what this movie is about, but the visuals and effects are cool.

From what I can tell, a pig type man, a Monkey type man, a monk and a blue guy are on an adventure to the west. They are in a boat with a stallion and end up in The Womanland. Only women live here and a prophecy says a pig type man, a Monkey type man, a monk and a blue guy will bring forth the end of the land. The queen and the monk have a thing going and there’s a river god and a gate to get through and I have no idea what I watched.

I’m not Chinese so I’m not familiar with Journey to the West which this is based on. To me, I see a monkey man, a pig guy, a monk and a blue dude in overly done CGI. The costuming is amazing of course. As is the set design and backdrops, but following the story, or at least understanding it, is pretty damn near impossible for me.

But even if you have no idea why a monkey man can fly or how a person can be a river god that takes different forms, the visuals are cool. There is fighting and flying and water and sword play and giant scorpions. None of it makes a lick of sense, but it looks cool.

If you’ve seen the first two films then you should definitely check out The Monkey King 3. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s probably not for you. This film lends itself to at least another film so I expect that one in the next year or so.